Free Fabulous Five 014 - The Seventh-Grade Menace by Betsy Haynes

house. "What brings you here, Little Miss?"
    Before Jana could answer and tell him about the pictures, he
continued, "I'll bet I know." He waved a finger in the air. "You've
thought about the trouble you and Geena have been having, and you want to be
friends with my daughter, don't you? I knew as soon as I saw you that
you were a fine girl yourself. Come on then," he said, reaching out and
taking hold of her and Geena's arms. "Why don't you give your mother a
call and stay for dinner?"
    Jana was pulled into the kitchen where George was taking a
big casserole of lasagna out of the oven, and Max and Joe were arguing over who
should set the table. Mr. McNatt grabbed the two boys by the shirt collars and
bumped their heads together. Max and Joe frowned at Jana as if she were the
cause of their being punished.
    "Quit the arguing! We've got company for dinner,"
their father ordered. Then, turning to Jana, he commanded, "There's the
phone on the wall. Pick it up and dial your mother."
    "Really, Mr. McNatt, I ought to . . ." As Jana
tried to protest, he turned his back on her and went to the sink and started to
wash his hands.
    "Nonsense, Little Miss," he said over his
shoulder. "If you and my Geena are going to be friends, you might as well
start right now ."
    Jana looked at Geena, who stared back.
    Jana gulped and reached for the phone to call her mother. As
she dialed, she heard Geena's father say, "George, you idiot, you burned
the lasagna again." Her mother sounded surprised at Jana's plans, but she
said she was pleased that Jana was making an effort to be friends with Geena.
Unfortunately there was no opportunity for Jana to blurt out the truth and ask
her mother to rescue her from the McNatts without Geena's father's hearing. She
sucked in a deep breath as she hung up the telephone and turned back to the
dinner table, where the McNatt family was waiting expectantly for her.
    The dinner was like nothing Jana had ever experienced in her
entire life. Max and Joe battled each other for the lasagna and the garlic
bread, and their father bellowed at Joe, who sat next to him, each time he
reached across the table to get the Parmesan cheese.
    "The five of us have been making do ever since the
children's mother died ten years ago," Mr. McNatt explained to Jana. He
jerked the lasagna platter away from Joe, who had jerked it away from Max, and
handed it to Jana so she could have seconds. "We've done pretty well, if I
do say so myself. The boys have been easy for me, of course. I know how to
handle men. You just rap them across the head to get their attention. But Geena
has been something else. She's a young lady. I'm real glad you've decided to be
friends with her, Little Miss. For some reason, she doesn't bring any of her
other girlfriends home."
    Jana looked out of the corner of her eye at Geena, who was
staring red-faced into her plate. She's embarrassed, thought Jana. Geena McNatt
is actually embarrassed. Just then Max grabbed the garlic-bread basket.
Seeing it was empty, he lunged for the half-eaten bread on the edge of Geena's
plate. Jana watched in amazement as Mr. McNatt's long arm streaked out, and he
hit Max on the back of the hand with the ladle from the lasagna before Geena
even had time to react. Max jerked his hand back and rubbed his knuckles, and
Geena flashed him a look of triumph.
    "Geena looks a lot like her mother. She has her tiny
freckles and wavy hair, only she doesn't keep it as neat as her mother did. But
I suppose that will come when she gets interested in boys." Mr. McNatt
looked at Jana hopefully. "Maybe you can give her some advice on how to
dress a little more . . . feminine."
    Geena's father really doesn't understand why she has
no friends, Jana thought. It boggled her mind. She had to agree that after
seeing the family up close, Geena probably wasn't too bad, compared to Max and
Joe and even her dad. All of them, except George, who ate quietly by himself at
the end of the table, were pretty rough. George